Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from ICE.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 1,400 people in the Columbus area in 2025, five times as many people as it did in 2024, according to an analysis of agency data published by the Deportation Data Project.That total includes approximately 240 people arrested in Columbus and central Ohio during “Operation Buckeye,” an immigration enforcement blitz that ICE said ran from Dec. 16 to 21, 2025.Although ICE has celebrated going after “the worst of the worst criminals” in Ohio, the vast majority of people taken into custody had no criminal conviction – less than 7% of arrestees during the heightened enforcement surge in mid-December had a criminal record, according to the Deportation Data Project (DDP) data analyzed by The Dispatch. The DDP collects immigration data from lawsuits and publishes the datasets publicly. A representative for ICE claimed that the Deportation Data Project "cherry picks" data and that many of the people that the agency classifies as not having a criminal record "are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S."ICE did not provide additional details to substantiate those claims about the hundreds of arrests during Operation Buckeye."We are putting the American people first by removing illegal aliens who pose a threat to our communities," an ICE spokesperson said in an email.Who is ICE arresting in Columbus?Most of the people ICE arrested in 2025 have no criminal background, according to the analysis.The data includes a 26-county region in and around central Ohio, but most of the records do not specify in which county arrests took place. Duplicate entries for the same person arrested within the same 24-hour period have been removed, but the data includes some duplicate entries for people arrested more than once over a more extended period.A representative for ICE said that "every single one of the people" counted as a non-criminal background committed a crime when entering the U.S. "illegally.""It is not an accurate description to say they are 'non-criminals.' This deceptive categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public, let us remind you that being here illegally is in fact a crime," ICE said.Undocumented presence in the United States – such as overstaying a visa – is a civil penalty, not a crime, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Other immigration violations, such as entering outside of a controlled border checkpoint or returning after deportation, can be considered a misdemeanor or felony.In December, during the Operation Buckeye surge, ICE arrested fewer people with criminal convictions than in each of the three months before.What happened during Operation Buckeye?The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that “more than 280 illegal aliens” were arrested around Ohio between Dec. 16-21 during the increased immigration operations in the state.The vast majority of the arrests appear to be in the Columbus region: The Deportation Data Project records show about 240 people were arrested in those six days.The Department of Homeland Security spotlighted a few arrests of people convicted of violent crimes, including assaulting a police officer. But the data show less than 7% of the people arrested had a criminal record.Most of the people who had criminal convictions were for non-violent offenses, according to the Deportation Data Project data. One person had a traffic offense, while some had a prior conviction for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.Of the 16 arrestees with prior criminal convictions, at least three of them were felonies: one for weapons possession, one for drug trafficking and one for robbery. A fourth was convicted of aggravated assault of a police officer, also a felony, though the ICE data did not classify it.Where are most people ICE arrested in Columbus area from?Most of the people ICE arrested in central Ohio are from Latin America, but the relative amount of people from Asia and Africa also grew from 2024 and 2025.People from Mexico were arrested more than any other country, followed by Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela and El Salvador.There was a sharp increase year-over-year in the number of people from Africa whom ICE arrested, from just 15 in 2024 to 105 in 2025, especially people from Mauritania, Somalia, Guinea, Ghana and Senegal.Anna Lynn Winfrey covers the northwestern suburbs for the Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com.This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: ICE agents mostly arrested people without criminal records in Columbus